Into that Vast Expanse

Hexus began the session by leading a team in a submersible to investigate the other half of the downed His Will Be Done. Archis set up a mind-link for all the crew so that their thoughts could be shared.

Quintus discovered that about half the prometheum supply was still intact, and so Na-Rami ordered the engineers to retrieve it. By slicing through the hull and magnetizing the fuel containers, they were able to float it to the surface. Meanwhile, Hexus began exploring the rest of the ship, discovering an unpowered powerglove in the armory. In the captain’s quarters he found most of the organic material destroyed by mold and rot, with a lockbox hidden in the remains of a wooden desk.

Returning from the downed ship, the retrieval team found that a large, eight-pointed starfish had covered the submersible door. Hexus drove it away with his new storm bolter.

Back aboard New Radius, the combined intimidating qualities of Archis and Nemo inspired the engineering team to get the lockbox open very quickly. The contents included some personal photograms, xenos jewelry, and some purple crystals that emanated a psychic presence.

Na-Rami ordered Nemo to set a course for the last system that Vestralis had visited, noting a large xenos influence. Upon arrival, the ship detected several gravitational anomalies as well as a half-destroyed Eldar webway gate orbiting a planet. The planet also had a small station in geosynchronous orbit above the remains of a pre-Imperial colony.

In the ruins of the colony, the command bunker contained samples of the same mold found inside the captain’s cabin of the crashed ship, appearing to be growing on the wall in a pattern resembling the High Gothic phrase “SAVE US”.

New Radius, S3

In the ruin of a dishonored vessel did the New Radius find xenon artifakts, cursed things with the vestige of psykik violation. They were sent to burn in the sun’s heat, cold in comparison to His hatred, gentle in comparison to His wrath. Maps led the New Radius to the source of this filth, a solar system untouched in recent memory, but marred with history. An Eldaar Warp Gate hung broken in eternal orbit, and nearby watched desolate shards of archaic human settlement, tainted with the blasphemy of children born before a father. Memory of their inevitable death lay etched for centuries, waiting for a witness: SAVE US, it called, crying out from darkness in yearning for a Saviour they could not know.

Be not tempted by the works of the Alien, for they are abominations.- Book of the Emperor

In the newly claimed Arc system, we landed on the planet XXPLACEHOLDERXX and began to find any life suitable for enrollment in the Imperium, lacking that we will find any resources or monies of value and provide a display of might for the local…. creatures.

We encountered a race not fit to name on the planet’s surface. Reptilian in appearance and devoid of worthwhile technology we eliminated what we considered to be their commander and laid waste to the pathetic huts they assembled.

Also of note was the existence of a downed light cruiser the His Will be Done the vessel broke into two main pieces while entering the planet The crew must have been stranded for millenia on the surface – the survivors gene pool becoming ever more shallow. A disgraceful lack of progress has been made on their behalf toward re-establishing communications with the astronomicon. But these were the workers mostly in this section and considering the lack of officers, one can understand their lack of progress. That said, their crude appearance and broken gestures towards the glory of the Emperor was commendable – like the drawings of a child.

I will begin to break down a review of senior officers now:

Nemo: The navigator is preforming admirably. We have encountered several warp storms to this point and we have come through scarred and carry no taint of the warp. Her tactics are… odd to my eyes, but she knows her craft. This is certain.

Sister Archis: A voice of calm reason is always enjoyed. Despite having much to attend to on board the ship our Psyker made the away mission and proved valuable in locating the source of the fuel supply, and as well as judging the intentions of the crew survivors.

Hexus: A gunslinger by trade and a wanderer. Useful, though curt and sometimes forgetting himself and his place. But… His background is totally foreign to me, and in my tour of penance I must learn to trust that which I am wary of. To an extent naturally. I must find means of utilizing his talents more.

Discovery of His Will Be Done

Father Novator,
The Rogue Trader to which I have been bound has discovered the fallen remains of His Will Be Done. Nearly half a millennium has passed since the ship split apart and crashed upon this planet, which has been christened Arck. The quality of inhabitants has suffered greatly from the resultant genetic bottleneck. Stranded with no means of communication or transport, only the lowest forms on the ship have survived and procreated. The resultant offspring are a mean, obtuse lot. Their leader made efforts to communicate the reasons for the initial crash—a gross miscalculation on the part of the Navigator. I take their continued existence as a cautionary tale of the consequences of failure.

The prow of the ship remains lost in the ocean’s depths, though a recovery effort is in progress. Aside from a quantity of prometheum, the vessel potentially holds a number of relics to reclaim. The primitive xenos which inhabit this planet will provide no significant resistance to our efforts. The merest display of power proved enough to cow their ignorant civilization, if such a word is even applicable.

The shore party returned aboard New Radius with geological and biological samples from the planet dubbed Arck. Choir-Leader Archis, who had been working with the remote survey crew by aiding their auspexes, indicated that there were no facilities anywhere on the planet’s surface that could produce refined promethium of that quality. Lord-Captain Na-Rami decided to land on the planet with a more substantial force and begin searching for the promethium’s source.

Rocky determined that the source of the promethium was an upwelling deep underwater, and Hexus wanted to don void-suits and swim down to investigate. But Archis interrogated a xeno’s mind and learned that the crew were not the only humans on the planet after all—the amphibious creature was aware of legends of humans in the dry mountains to the northeast.

Hexus piloted the luxury Aquila Lander in that direction, escorted by a wing of fighters. The fighters’ auspex array revealed a twisted hunk of metal embedded in one of the mountain valleys—which on closer inspection was revealed to be part of a downed frigate. Human forms surrounded the structure, clamoring for attention.

Na-Rami ordered that a communication micro-bead be dropped into the crowd, and once the humans activated it they began to sing Imperial hymns. Satisfied that the humans were uncorrupted, first the lead fighter pilot and then the Aquila Lander were lowered into the crowd. Over steady Imperial chants, the lander doors opened to reveal the New Radius crew impressively arrayed in full uniform.

The humans were descendants of the survivors of the crash of His Will Be Done, a Rogue Trader frigate of the Vestralis dynasty that had gone missing 500 years earlier. Their leader, Maximillican, was very grateful for the rescue. He indicated that the other half of the broken ship (bearing the bridge, promethium reserves, and trophy hold) had fallen into the nearby sea.

Since the downed ship’s logs indicated that there were artifacts and riches to be had in that section of the ship, Na-Rami ordered them recovered from the sunken wreck.

Heresy cleansed on Vaporius

Today I came closer to the dangers of the Warp than I ever dared to fear, Brother. But with the grace of the Emperor and the guidance of our genetic destiny, I have lived to tell the tale.

The heretical priest-king of the Vaporius city-state led us to the Drusan monastery, but the reliquaries proved empty of the holy scripture we sought. I believe the priest-king knew this all along, for his amusement was palpable. Indeed, the monastery fairly reeked of incense and corruption, and as we left the building I thought I could feel the presence of his unsanctioned and heretical psychic powers.

But treachery will always be paid in kind. Leading us to the compound where he insisted the writings must have been moved, I detected another psychic push from the man. I do not know his intent, but it could not have been what came to pass. Before our eyes, a rent in the Warp appeared and a demon emerged to claim the heretic as its own, drawn by the power of his mind.

The demon disappeared as quickly as it came, its unspeakable desires satisfied. Drawing the townspeople into a mob (and with the aid of the Drusan warrior-missionary Cadis) we marched on the priest-king’s compound with intent to root out the corruption within and retrieve the scriptures. But the man’s heresy proved deeper than we could have imagined, for we found the gates guarded by a member of the Traitor Legions themselves!

The foul Traitor—neither man nor woman, with the exposed and unclean parts of each—attempted to treat with us, but I am proud to say that Lord-Captain Raethos was not swayed for a moment. He led the townspeople in an assault on the corrupted Marine and its minions, and in time we drove it into retreat.

Our wounds in the battle against the Traitor were grievous, and so we requested aid and reinforcements from The Bottom Line. By the time we were able to pursue further, many of the corrupted minions within the heretical compound had destroyed themselves in a literal orgy of blood. Cadis and I cleansed their bodily remains, but their souls will remain forever spoiled.

At the heart of the compound we encountered an anti-aircraft tower whose very beams of construction had been infiltrated by the tendrils of a hideous subterranean demon, made invisible by dark magics in a twisted consecration of human flesh. With the reinforcements from our ship it was easily demolished, revealing a substructure beneath the compound. There we battled the beast itself, a foul abomination of tentacles, eyes, and teeth. The powers of my Eye proved remarkably deleterious to its Warp-born substance, a capability our family would do well to refine.

Although we discovered the holy Drusan scriptures in that underground lair, they did not accompany the warp-route map that we had hoped. Indeed, it seems that the Traitor had been expecting our arrival and knew of the map’s absence, pre-warned in a letter by an individual identified only as “M”. The Traitor itself manage to escape judgment via a teleportarium with an unknown exit configuration.

Although the basest corruption was cleansed from that city-state, we still suspected its lingering effects in the hearts and minds of the remaining townsfolk. How could we trust that their souls would remain pure after such prolonged exposure to the twists of Chaos? The Lord-Captain’s tenderness caused only a moment’s hesitation before he gave the order for the city to be razed from orbit.

I can only hope that this encounter leaves no lingering mark on my soul. Somewhere in the course of the day’s events, I began to feel the latent power of my Eye awakening. Such developments are always welcome, of course, but this one did not seem to arrive with any genetic manifestation or change, only a lingering feeling of dread.

We go next to Port Wander, where I will deliver this letter to you by the usual channels. After that we plan to seek the map in Orn. Be safe, Brother, and await my next sending.

New Radius, S2

In accordance with the Imperial Creed honoring the Master, Defender and Father of Mankind, The New Radius rescued his children who had long been stranded on a xenic planet. There was hesitance in taking aboard humans of such limited intelligence – but in His eyes, are we not all as children? And within hearing of His word, are we not all miniscule? In mass and by His powers do we take the universe that is rightfully His, and today new mass was added to the New Radius; new voices, and new hearts pure in faith beneath tongues clumsy and broken.

Every human has a place within the divine order of the Emperor.- Imperial Creed

A New Chapter

So I’ve found myself on a Rogue Trader ship. I was on Port Wander relaxing a bit between jobs when some smart-looking gents come in looking for me. Seems that this New Radius is headed out into the expanse and is looking for someone who knows their way around out there—as much as anyone can, I suppose. My reputation proceeds me. Not sure if that’s such a good thing, but I signed on anyway.

Let me tell you, I’ve never had this much credit in my whole life. First thing I did was rush out to the market looking for a shinier bolt gun (not much better than the feeling of sinking a bolt into the flesh of someone who deserves it, though I have had my eye on those fancy flame-throwers those missionaries tote around). Think I scared the poor merchant shitless, but really, who buys a gun and doesn’t want to try it out.

New Radius is the size of a city, bigger than any ship I’ve ever been on, so I walk around trying not to look like a gawking fool. The captain is some pious noble from the other side of the galaxy. I’d hate the man if he didn’t seem to actually know what he’s doing most of the time. Since we’re going to be traveling through the warp a lot there’s a navigator on board. Black-eyed bitch gives me the heebie-jeebies. I hear whispers of crew being summoned to her quarters and coming back… different, but it’s best to pay them no heed.

We blasted straight through the Koronus Passage. Two solid weeks in warp. Makes me nauseous, though I suppose you get used to it eventually. Thankfully we’ve seen nothing worse that the occasional warp storm. Hope to keep it that way. On the other side we made two trips through the warp in the direction of Concanid. First trip landed us right in front of an astroid the size of a moon. I’m sitting at the helm of this behemoth trying to avoid a direct collision, sweat dripping down my face. Not pleasant.

Navigator did better on round two. Found us a brand new solar system. Captain named it the Ramius System (humble, isn’t he). One habitable planet, Arck, settled by some scaly xenos. I almost feel bad for the poor bastards. As soon as you know they’re primitive, you know they don’t stand a chance. Most likely there’s something down on that planet that we want and they’re in the way. Bye, bye fishy.

Captain and a few of us went down to take a look after making our presence known. They speak, but only in babble, so they might as well not. Captain sent me and some geologist off to take samples (of the water and of the population). We’re down on the beack and the geo says there’s promethium leeching into the water. Leeching from where we don’t know yet, but if there’s promethium on this rock, that credit is only going to get better. I may buy me a flamethrower yet.

Limitless possibilities

Kara was absent from the first session, so Jemidar Archis made no appearance.

The crew set about making purchases on Port Wander. Most notably, Quintus Hexus purchased a storm bolter from a gun merchant and tested its firing capabilities by emptying a round into the floor.

When it was time to get underway, Lord-Captain Satrius Na-Rami ordered that the journey through the Maw be as swift as possible. Navigator Vesper Nemo complied, shattering the mind of a low-level crew-member as she augured the Warp’s suitability for travel. The fates were favorable, and the journey was swift and uneventful.

Once past the Passage, Na-Rami decided that the ship would not skirt the fringes of previously explored territory in Winterscale’s Realm but rather head off to largely unknown space. Nemo made a two-part jump to the Unbeholden Reaches, where the auspex detected a nearby system with an inhabited planet.

The amphibious natives of the planet were technologically stunted and easily subdued by bombing runs and hymns. The captain ordered some be taken for inspection and autopsy. He also ordered geological scans performed across the planet. That is when Quintus and “Rocky” discovered trace amounts of refined promethium in the nearby ocean…

Heresy and corruption on Vaporius

By the time this letter reaches your eye you will no doubt have been informed of the new xenos threat unleashed at Pulsar 484-Scran, as relayed by our Choirmaster. I trust that you and the rest of the family will take adequate precautions lest you encounter this species unprepared, as they are a powerful breed and command many insidious powers of the Warp.

Needless to say, the search for the lost warp routes of Saint Drusus did not bear any fruit at the Pulsar, and so The Bottom Line has continued on to the feudal world Vaporius. This is a dry, desiccated world, and its people have all but forgotten the Emperor’s grace. As I put words to parchment, we await the delivery of a Drusan missionary whose craft was shot down as she attempted to land upon the planet’s surface. In her conversation with the Lord Captain over vox she revealed that she had come to the planet for an unspecified Drusan relic—I can only hope she does not refer to the very warp routes we seek, as I fear a grave conflict of interest.

(later)

It appears that the inhabitants of this sphere, though unorthodox and heretical in their faith, are no strangers to outside visitors. The priest-king of the local city-state has insisted that we assist him with his war effort, lest we fall prey to the same gruesome fate he bestowed upon his previous guests. It grates my soul to acquiesce to his demands, but truth be told we require his cooperation if we are to gain access to the Drusan temple located in his holy palace. The air above me is thick with cargo ships bearing pure water and refined adamantium from the holds of our vessels in orbit. When the king’s silos are finally supplied, we will enter the temple and see what relics it holds.